Hawks coach sends message

Quenneville wants better play from best players as club is on brink of playoff extinction

April 20, 2012|By Chris Kuc, Chicago Tribune reporter

In this most desperate of times for the Blackhawks, coach Joel Quenneville is sending a message loud and clear to his top players.

Asked Friday about his team's play during its first-round playoff series against the Coyotes — in which the Hawks trail 3-1 entering Game 5 on Saturday night in Glendale, Ariz. — Quenneville simply said, "I've been happy with (Dave) Bolland's line."

That covers Bolland, Bryan Bickell and Michael Frolik (and rookie Andrew Shaw before he was suspended after Game 2). Conspicuous in their absence from Quenneville's limited praise were top-six forwards Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp.

"Our top guys have to be better for us to be successful going forward," Quenneville said. "We need them to be our best players for sure."

With Marian Hossa sidelined with an upper-body injury suffered in Game 3 on a hit from the Coyotes' Raffi Torres, the trio of Toews, Kane and Sharp combined for one assist (by Toews) and six shots on goal during the Hawks' 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4 on Thursday night. For the series, those three core players have two goals and six assists.

Consider Quenneville's message received as Toews and Sharp — two of the three players made available to the media before the team boarded a charter flight to Phoenix — are ready to accept the responsibility of stepping up with the Hawks on the brink of elimination.

"If the fingers are pointed at me, then that's fine — I'll accept it," said Sharp, who led the Hawks during the regular season with 33 goals. "I'm not going to waste any time on negative energy, I'm going to focus on playing the best Game5 that I can."

Added Toews, who had 29 goals during the regular season and still is working himself into game shape after missing the final 22 games with a concussion: "Even if the point production, the goals and assists are where I want them to be, there are always a little thing or two where you feel like you can do more. I don't think I'm the only one in the locker room right now. We all need to feel that responsibility that if every single guy takes it upon himself to be better, it's going to pay off. It starts with guys like myself."

As captain, the 23-year-old Toews understands the onus falls directly on him to raise his game to another level when his team needs it the most.

"As a captain you get a lot of credit when things go well for your team, but you're going to be the guy right in the middle of it when things are going south," Toews said. "We're in a tough position as a team in this series. We just have to deal with it (Saturday night). I want to bring a little extra effort to help us get over the hump."

Credit the Coyotes with shutting down the Hawks' top scorers. Coach Dave Tippett's defensive style of play has limited time and space throughout the series, and when the chances have been there, goaltender Mike Smith has come up big.

"The top guys in a lot of series … in the playoffs sometimes (are) against their checking lines, and they're out there to do a job on them," Quenneville said. "I still think we need some contributions across the board."

Quenneville also could be preparing to shine a light on the Hawks' goaltending for Game 5. The coach's normal policy is to reveal the starter the day before a game, but Quenneville wouldn't commit Friday, saying, "We're talking about that."

That could mean Ray Emery will replace Corey Crawford in goal after the latter yielded two relatively soft goals in consecutive overtimes to allow the Coyotes to take a commanding lead in the series.

Other than those miscues — and they were big ones — Crawford has been solid.